1817
Year 1817 (MDCCCXVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). Events of 1817 : Battle of Chacabuco.]] January - March * January 19 - An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, starts crossing the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru. * February 12 - The Argentine/Chilean patriotic army defeats the Spanish in the Battle of Chacabuco. * March 3 **The Alabama Territory is created by splitting the Mississippi Territory in half, 9 months before Mississippi becomes a U.S. state. ***President James Madison vetoes John C. Calhoun's Bonus Bill. * March 4 - James Monroe succeeds James Madison as the President of the United States of America. : Erie Canal started.]] April - June * April - Earthquake in Palermo, Italy * April 3 - Princess Caraboo appears in Almondsbury in Gloucestershire, England. * April 15 - The first American school for the deaf opens in Hartford. * April 17 - Martin Van Buren passes Erie Canal bill. * April 28 - Rush-Bagot Treaty is signed. * May - The General Convention of the Episcopal Church founded General Theological Seminary while meeting in New York City. * June 5 - First Great Lakes steamer, the Frontenac, is launched. * June 25 - Large prison riot in Copenhagen prison - army is sent for to quell it. : Mississippi statehood.]] July - September * July 4 - At Rome, construction on the Erie Canal begins. * August 22 - City of Araraquara, Brazil founded. * August 23 - Earthquake near the site of the ancient Greek city of Helike results in 65 deaths. October - December * October - President and Mrs. James Monroe move back into the White House, after restoration repairs. *October 31 - Emperor Ninkō accedes to the throne of Japan. * November 20 - The first Seminole War begins in Florida. * November 22 - Fredric Cailliaud discovers the old Roman emerald mines at Sikait, Egypt. * December 10 - Mississippi is admitted as the 20th U.S. state, separated from the Alabama Territory. displayed.]] Undated * Elgin Marbles are displayed in the British Museum. * John Kidd extracts naphthalene from coal tar. * Samuel Taylor Coleridge publishes Biographia Literaria. * A Typhus epidemic occurs in Edinburgh and Glasgow. * Outbreak of the Pernambucan Revolt. Births January - June * January 6 - J. J. McCarthy, Irish architect (d. 1882) * January 8 - Sir Theophilus Shepstone, British-born South African statesman (d. 1893) * February 19 - King William III of the Netherlands (d. 1890) * February 22 - Carl Wilhelm Borchardt, German mathematician (d. 1880) * March 6 - Clémentine of Orléans, daughter of King Louis-Philippe of France and mother of Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (d. 1907) * March 22 - Braxton Bragg, American Confederate general (d. 1876) * May 15 - Debendranath Tagore, Indian philosopher (d. 1905) * June 30 - Joseph Dalton Hooker, English botanist (d. 1911) July - December * July 12 - Henry David Thoreau, American philosopher (d. 1862) * July 24 - Adolphe (d. 1905) * August 3 - Archduke Albert, Austrian general (d. 1895) * August 14 - Alexander H. Bailey, American politician (d. 1874) * August 24 - Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian writer (d. 1875) * October 17 - Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (Bahadaur) Founder of the Two Nation Theory for a future Pakistan (d. 1898) * November 3 - Leonard Jerome, American entrepreneur and grandfather of Sir Winston Churchill (d. 1891) * November 12 - Bahá'u'lláh, Persian founder of the Bahá'í Faith (d. 1892) * November 17 - Benjamin Champney, American painter (d. 1907) * November 30 - Theodor Mommsen, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1903) : See also 1817 births. Deaths January - June * January 12 - Juan Andres, Spanish Jesuit (b. 1740) * January 16 - Alexander J. Dallas, American statesman and financier (b. 1759) * April 4 - André Masséna, French marshal (b. 1758) * April 12 - Charles Messier, French astronomer (b. 1730) * June 24 - Thomas McKean, American lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1734) July - December *July 14 - Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, French writer (b. 1766) *July 18 - Jane Austen, English novelist (b. 1775) *July 19 - John Palmer, Bath architect (b. c. 1738) *October 16 - Manuel Piar, Venezuelan military leader (b. 1774) *November 14 - Policarpa Salavarrieta, Colombian spy and revolutionary who worked for the Independence of Colombia (b. 1795) *November 30 - Jean-Baptiste-Melchior Hertel de Rouville, Canadian politician (b. 1748) *12 December - Emperor Tekle Giyorgis I of Ethiopia, (b. about 1751) : See also 1817 deaths.